A conventional bed frame has two opposed side rails with a plurality of cross support members, or slats, extending across the side rails for supporting a box spring and mattress. Each side rail is typically formed from an elongated piece of metal having an L-shaped cross-section. Thus, each side rail typically includes a horizontal flange for supporting a portion of the box spring and a vertical flange to help prevent deflection of the side rail under the weight of the box spring, mattress, and any person lying on the mattress. Although such angular arrangement provides structural integrity, each side rail terminates in a sharp lower corner that may be contacted by the ankle or shin of a person making up the bed or the like.
Conventional bed frames may further include several other components. For example, support leg assemblies are usually secured to the side rails or cross members to support the bed frame above a floor surface. Oftentimes the support leg assemblies are positioned slightly inwardly from the side rails to avoid the injurious striking of a person's feet or toes against the leg assemblies. Also, brackets or hooks are typically provided at one or both ends of each side rail for mounting the bed frame to a head board and/or footboard. The brackets are often bolted to the head board or footboard, while the hooks are often designed to engage horizontal pins disposed in a slot on the head board or footboard.
In order to facilitate transportation and storage, the components of a conventional bed frame are typically assembled on site. This assembly process can become quite cumbersome because it usually requires the use of multiple tools. For example, the head board brackets of a conventional bed frame are often secured to the side rails by bolts or other fasteners. Likewise, the support leg assemblies must be screwed or bolted to the cross-support members and/or side rails. The average consumer does not keep the appropriate tools to carry out these fastening operations in his or her bedroom, and must instead search around his or her house for the right equipment before beginning the assembly process. If the consumer does not have the appropriate tools, he or she must make a separate trip to the hardware store to purchase them.
Some manufactures and retailers have attempted to alleviate the frustration associated with such an assembly process by including small tools with the bed frame and fasteners. For example, some manufacturers provide a small alien wrench for securing bolts that have been included with the bed frame. Assembling the bed frame with these small tools is still burdensome, and each time the bed frame is disassembled and stored some or all of the tools and/or fasteners may be misplaced or lost.
Other retailers deliver the bed frames to consumers and provide their deliverymen with the appropriate tools for assembly. However, because the deliverymen travel to many different locations on any given day, the tools may be easily left behind at a particular delivery site. Furthermore, the use of deliverymen does not alleviate any of the frustration associated with disassembling the bed frame for the purposes of storage or the like.
Therefore, there is a need for bed frame that can be easily assembled and disassembled without the use of additional tools.